A week ago, Netflix announced they were dropping HD-DVD entirely. Best-Buy also announced that they were going to be officially recommending Blu-Ray in early march.
Then on Friday, Wal-Mart/Sam's Club announced they were dropping HD-DVD entirely, and by June they'd have only Blu-Ray on shelves. Later on Friday, NHK announced that Toshiba was planning on dropping HD-DVD entirely.
Monday, Toshiba has confirmed that they're looking into their options. Wall Street Journal cites unidentified sources that an announcement could be coming by the end of the week.
I like this quote from this forbes article :
quote:
Cutting its losses on HD DVD could boost Toshiba's operating profit by 20% in the next fiscal year, Nikko Citigroup analyst Hiroyuki Masuko said Monday. He raised his rating on the stock to "buy" from "neutral."
Khyron fucked around with this message on 02-18-2008 at 09:57 AM.
quote:
Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD BusinessesCompany Remains Focused on Championing Consumer Access to High Definition Content
TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.
“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”
Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.
Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.
This decision will not impact on Toshiba’s commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.
Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD.
Khyron fucked around with this message on 02-19-2008 at 08:20 AM.
quote:
nem-x got all f'ed up on Angel Dust and wrote:
ONE MORE NAIL IN THE COFFIN FOR THE PS3 oh wai
In a year or so (Probably less) there will be a Blu-Ray add-on for the 360. Microsoft has already stated they'd be open to the idea. They're probably going to try to push digital download a lot more, but I don't think they'll rule out an add-on player.
quote:
Zephyer Kyuukaze impressed everyone with:
Heh, I'll bet the people who blew over 100 on the 360 HD DVD addon are gonna be pissed.
Me and alaan have them.
Oh well. No skin off my back.
